GOP says Burner lied about degree

Burner, who is in a tight rematch against Republican Rep. Dave Reichert in the 8th Congressional District, received a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the Ivy League school.

Burner has cited her Harvard economics degree when speaking about the recent downturn in the economy.

Burner told The Seattle Times that she has a computer science degree with a special field in economics. “All along we’ve been trying to be very, very clear,” she told the Times.

But Republicans say Burner has been spreading falsehoods.

“At a time when so many people are concerned about the national financial crisis and their own economic future, it is despicable of her to deliberately lie to voters to make herself appear as an expert on the economy,” said state GOP chairman Luke Esser.

UPDATE
Burner spokesman Sandeep Kaushik says the allegations by the Reichert campaign show their desperation.

“Darcy Burner has a degree in computer science with a special field in economics from Harvard, graduated 1996. This is exactly how we have described her degree to every media inquiry since the beginning of the campaign,” he said in an e-mail.

The special field is a requirement for a Harvard computer science degree.which requres students to do a concentration in a related field to computer science. Darcy did hers in economics, taking fivesemesters of economics courses and two math courses that counted towards economics (along with eight courses in computer science and two other
math classes that counted toward meeting the computer science
requirement).